Living a More Purposeful Life One Cent at a Time

Teacher Talk: I Doubled My Salary

I’m not talking about my full-time income mixed with various side hustle streams. This has nothing to do with passion projects. No freelancing, no ghostwriting, none of it. I doubled my full-time salary.

And I am so proud.

There’s a lot of debate about how to achieve your financial goals. Do you cut your spending? Do you increase your income? I’m a firm believer in doing both.

However, a lot of times, the pacing gets distorted. The effort required gets minimized. In some fields, there are no quarterly bonuses. There is no merit pay. Instead, it’s a long slow slog to the top.

It took me a decade of work in and outside the classroom, but I did it. Here’s how:

What it Cost to Get Here

I am making a lot of money. I won’t cross the six figure mark for more than another decade, but as far as teaching salaries go, I am doing just fine.

Becoming a high earner in any field is difficult. Whether it is cultivating a skill set, wielding an innate intelligence, fostering persistence, or something else, making a lot of money is hard work. It just is.

But when you choose a field like education, it can often feel like an impossibility. Our industry isn’t designed to pay well. It is designed to pay enough. Enough to keep teachers in classrooms educating students. Enough to hope that people will still pursue their passion, follow their dreams to the other side of the desk and stick around. And a lot of times, it can’t even do that.

The way you earn more money in education also varies. I won’t claim to be an expert on all public teacher salaries. I know next to nothing about private teacher income. But I do know that for a lot of people, myself included, the way you earn more money is to spend it.

99 Credit Hours

In the past decade, I have spent a lot of time in the classroom. Not just my classroom either. As someone who has always delighted in school, especially now that I have started to shed a bit of my perfectionism and am learning to take real risks, this is a dream come true for me. But it came at a very real cost.

Spanish endorsement (12 hours – $4,000) – In an effort to get out of undergrad before my academic scholarship ran out (if you went past four years, you turned into a pumpkin paid full price for everything), I couldn’t finish a Spanish minor. Instead, I completed the coursework in the evenings during my first year of teaching because so many of my students’ families were Spanish speaking. It remains my favorite program, and it was also the most cost effective since a few hours carried over from undergrad and I took the rest at community college. BOOM.

Master’s degree in Reading (36 hours – $11,000) – The first school I worked at served a very special population. We were a Title 1 school that was almost entirely free and reduced lunch. Most of my 8th graders read at a late elementary school level. When I started teaching special education students who had phonemic awareness (I didn’t know what that was either because my background is 6-12) goals, I knew I had to go back to school to figure out how to help them. So I got my K-12 Reading Specialist degree in 18 months. I was also fired (for the second time) during this program. Had this happened a few years later, I would have priced myself out of a job, as the district I went to work for no longer considers applications from people with graduate hours.

English as a Second Language certificate program (18 hours – $6,000) – There was supposed to be a significant amount of overlap between my first Master’s and this program. However, the State overhauled their requirements for ESL teachers, and only one of my classes counted toward this program. So it was another 9 months of learning for me.

Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction (33 hours – $13,000) – Less hours and more money. Ouch and ouch. There were parts of this program that I really enjoyed. But if you follow me on Twitter, you know that there were also plenty of parts that I could have done without. My school district is very particular with the programs that they approve now. Not only do you have to justify your field of study, you can only select from very few colleges and universities. Still, it was necessary for me to max out my salary schedule, so I paid for it.

All of this coursework took me to various stages on the salary schedule. It looked different in the two districts that I worked at, and it looks different now due to contract negotiations. But if I had to synthesize all of the blood, sweat, and textbooks into a single sentence, I would say this: Outside of a negligible annual increase (half a percent?), the only way that I was able to grow my salary was to accrue more credit hours. So back to school I went. Often.

A Paycut

In addition to shelling out a ton of money on continuing education, I also took a paycut of over $10,000 when I switched schools. I made the decision for two reasons: I was tired of being RIFed, and I was thinking long term. I had a sense that if the district I was currently in was struggling with money so much and so obviously that things were going to get worse before they got better. And they have. When I was there, they were RIF-ing 1st and 2nd year teachers. Eventually, they went all the way up to 7th year.

Still, it was hard and uncertain. It is very easy to tell people to think long term. It is another thing entirely to do it. Especially when you are in the middle of a $11,000 program. The hardest part, though, wasn’t financial. It was emotional. My students need me now. I make a difference. I matter. I do.

But if I am being totally frank, I mattered a lot more in my first district. My leaving was an act of self preservation but in a field where you are taught to consider yourself last, it still feels incredibly selfish, even today.

What Else it Took to Double My Salary

Time

If I believed everything I read on the Internet, I would be in for a world of hurt. There was nothing simple about what I did. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t quick.

I don’t think I have ever encountered a clickbait headline that mirrored the process that I muscled through to double my salary.

It’s true that money and learning are a big part of the equation, but something that can’t be overlooked either is sheer time. I have been doing my job—the same job—for over a decade. Of course, I’ve been in different districts. I’ve taught different grade levels and content areas. I’ve had more than a handful of different bosses. But I am still doing the same job that I’ve always done.

But that’s part of why I’ve been able to maximize my income as a teacher. This is not a field that you can enter and expect to pull a big salary right away. But it is possible. It just takes time. And in a world where it seems that most career decisions move at warp speed, I can tell you that there have been points over the past ten years where it felt like I was standing still.

Dedication

There’s this misconception that no one gets fired in teaching. As someone who was fired both my first and second year in the classroom, I can assure you that isn’t true. Even as more teachers leave the profession, there are still gaping holes in school budgets. Reducing staffing and increasing class sizes is one of the easiest—and most problematic—ways to cut costs.

Beyond that, though, is something that people inside the profession understand well. After massive overhauls that have been done to evaluation models, no one is safe. Not entirely. Not absolutely.

That’s the way it should be. We don’t just need teachers; we need dedicated ones.

Over the past decade, I have absolutely thought long and hard about my salary. But I’m in it for my students. I participate in and lead professional development that doesn’t pay anything but makes me a better teacher. I continually put my students first. I also work hard to help my coworkers because I believe that their students are my students as well.

Pushing myself to excel continually keeps me in the classroom. Not just from a hiring and firing perspective, but also from a burnout perspective. When I give my students my best, I get their best in return. That doesn’t mean it isn’t hard. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t days that seem impossible. But it does mean that in a field that is becoming notorious for burnout and turnovers, I can stay strong.

Final Thoughts on Doubling My Salary as a Teacher

I never thought this day would come.

Logically, I knew it would. But psychologically, I can’t believe it happened.

It’s a relief to be here, and it is also incredibly validating. To stay in a field you love for so long is an accomplishment in and of itself. To work so hard to finally start to feel that you are being compensated not just in warm fuzzies but in an actual denomination that pays bills is incredible.

But this position that I am in isn’t perfection. In fact, it’s quite precarious. There is a very real chance that if I needed to or wanted to leave my district, I would never be hired elsewhere. I have, essentially, priced myself out. Because when you make double what a first-year teacher does, you don’t get hired. Not in this climate, not in the midst of this budget crisis.

I wouldn’t do things differently given the chance. I am glad that I pursued so much additional schooling. I am better because of it. I am also thrilled to be earning a good living for my family. But I’m also not kidding myself. I’ve doubled my salary, sure, but that comes at quite a cost.

So Tell Me…What does doubling your salary look like in your profession? Is that something you have ever aspired to do?

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29 Comments

Great post Penny-I love how you broke it down. Time certainly is the most important factor. I’ve written before about how I increased my salary, but of course it’s from a corporate perspective. Time and education were most certainly key.

Wow, Penny, bravo. You clearly kept your eye on the prize and kept at things even when they going got rough. That tells me that you can achieve anything you set your mind to, so FI is an inevitability for you. And I thought one masters and half a PhD was a lot of schooling! To double my salary would be quite easy, I’d just have to jump from state employment to private industry. But I’d lose the safety net, the work life balance, the direct patient interaction, the workplace would be drastically different, and I’m willing to bet that new half salary the hours would be long, the expectations would be high, and I’d lose part of myself in the process. Not worth it to me. I’m with you, long slow slog to the top it is. Give me a happy and content decent salary over a fast paced stressful high salary any day.

Great work on learning the rules of game then winning. I think we both work in jobs that have the rare pension benefit and the combination of salary and time creates the payout formula. Working my way up into the top 5% of pay in my company for my position will do great things for the payout and I bet you’ve done the same in your district.

I’m a few cents per hour away from doubling my first full-time job after college. I bought my house on that salary, so it’s not “nothing” but today that rate would barely be minimum wage in some progressive cities. For me, it took specialization into a specific niche that is somewhat complicated and very boring to most people. But I became an expert on the topic and spent 3.5 years working for the state to help my peers in other local governments to better understand the program. Fortunately for me, most of my training and certification have been paid by my employers, and I get to attend multiple conferences and webinars throughout the year to stay up to date with the latest changes.

Congrats (with tiaras and hip thrusts!) on that huge milestone. At this point unless I choose to go into management I likely won’t/can’t double my income. But that being said once I get my designation my scale will take me to just over a 6 figure yearly income so I can’t really complain. And as the mean income in my Province is around 60k a year I will be making well over that. I also chose a very specialized field to ensure that I could make this kind of income.

Regardless you have achieved a fantastic milestone for yourself and your family. I hope you are able to celebrate in some fashion all the hard work, time and effort you have put into your education. Its not always fun in the middle of it but it does tend to pay off in the end. So congrats!

Well done, Penny. Now do it again ;-). Just kidding (sort of). Your post reminds me that so much of our happiness in life is not about money. Most of our happiness is about satisfaction, and while that can be related to money, sometimes, it is mostly not.

As I’ve said before, I’m a lawyer and have seen my wages rise through almost three decades of work to be many multiples of where it was when I started, and then decrease as I’ve slowed my practice down and devote less time to the law. My wife is a teacher who makes about 10% of what I make. Our friends are generally either lawyers or teachers and I can tell you that the happier group is the group of teachers, by a mile. Not even close.

Money does not equal happiness. It just helps solve a problem or two that we all share, regardless of profession (but sometimes leads to other problems that excess money helps create – if we ever meet ask me about the acquaintance who won the lottery, and the misery that brought him and his family).

I applaud your diligence in the pursuit of your earnings goal. I hope that it helps your travels toward the larger life goals that I know you are pursuing.

Definitely, Oldster! This is probably the most that I’ve ever focused on money when talking about my career. Because if I’m being honest, it isn’t about the money. But I have to keep reminding myself that it’s OK to figure out how to be well paid for what I bring to my classroom. That doesn’t make me selfish. It is standard practice is virtually every other field, so it’s OK for me to focus on that from time to time.

I’m glad your wife and your teacher friends are happy. It is such a fulfilling job. It always hurts my heart when I hear teachers say they are leaving. That is one of societies biggest failings, IMHO. We need good teachers!

Penny! Congrats! I am 26 year veteran public school teacher and I remember what a great feeling it was when I finally moved to the highest salary lane possible without a PhD. (and like you, it wouldn’t be worthwhile to pursue.)

I can relate about still feeling vulnerable because we are vulnerable but that’s why we stay frugal and focussed. I worry all the time about how to be the best, most productive teacher I can be. Yes, the salary feels good, but more important, being motivated to be the best teacher for your students is what makes it all worthwhile.

I’ve doubled my salary since I started at my job. And there’s zero chance that I’d get what I’m paid now if I got any similar job. Assuming there are other answer-customer-emails-from-home jobs out there. But anyway, customer service doesn’t pay this well, so I’d be in trouble if I ever left. Which I have no plans to do for more reasons that just pay.

I would need another 40k to double my initial salary. I think I’d have to be hired by a business school to get that. Now I’m depressed. DH doubled his initial salary by leaving academia and getting a private sector!

I hadn’t thought about it until your post but I just did the math and…I have quadrupled my salary. O.o

Which means, primarily, that I was grossly underpaid in my first job 14 years ago.

What did it take?

1. I have a masters degree that cost me about $22,000 out of pocket. It’s not necessary in my field, but it looks good, it gave me a lot of contacts in the industry and it kick-started my understanding of lots of things that I don’t deal with day to day, like the financial and operations sides of the business.

2. I had to step in to management. I would rather be a sole performer, but I’m now in my second management role. It doesn’t come naturally and I feel much more stressed by helping other people achieve than hitting my own goals, but that’s where the money is.

3. For me, personally, I had to become a parent. My daughter’s difficult start and the ways that impacted our family helped me get my priorities straight. There is a value to my time away from my kids and I expect to be paid more than I accepted before they were born. I know what it feels like to believe your child won’t survive the night, so I am able to keep calm during work “crises”. I basically have less time for bullshit, and apparently that shines through and gets paid for.

4. I have had to change jobs a lot. Once upon a time, I got big raises just for doing a good job. Now I have to move to a new company to get equivalent increases.

I’m impressed with your perseverance and the investments you’ve made in your education. Would it be cliché to say you’re worth every penny?

I went the route of front-loading my education and am now actively decreasing my salary and working less. I’m still learning — every day is a school day — but I prefer to learn about things unrelated to my career, which is now in its twilight.

My first job out of college paid so little that it didn’t take all that long to double it when I was working like two and a half people. I’m incredibly lucky that I was in the right time and place for my hustling hours to matter in the way it did and paid off. I could easily have picked badly and ended up working those hours without any decent end result. But instead of money cost, the cost of doubling that early salary was my health, so it’s definitely not a thing I could repeat now if I were to start again at the beginning.

In being overqualified or priced out, is it never done to leave off graduate credits when you change jobs or is that a total no no? Obviously it wouldn’t be GOOD to take a massive pay cut and start somewhere else but worse case scenario in losing your job in a bad climate, a lower paying job is better than no job no? Or do they just ignore senior / more credentialed teachers entirely?

Good on you! You’ve put in a lot of work and you’re seeing the results. You are a legend! But tbh… wouldn’t it be much easier on everyone if teachers were just paid a set wage by the State or Federal government and you wouldn’t have to jump through these hoops? In Australia in my state, (Victoria), for the first few years of teaching your pay starts at $64,500 and goes up by 2 or 3 grand a year, after 11 years you hit the ceiling. I’m at that level now… only $500 from earning 100K. (Maybe next year, with my cost of living increase in pay, I’ll make it…) If you want to earn more you have to go for Leading Teacher positions or principal class positions. The ambitious people do that. There’s no advantage in doing a Masters unless you think you’ll want to go into admin, so I haven’t done it. Everyone earns the same. If people want to do further study they can, and the school will usually help foot the bill. They can see the advantages. We have to do at least 30 hours of professional development a year to keep our teaching positions, but the school builds this into our workload. In effect, we have it provided for us free of charge. The state government pays our wages, so there’s no difference between school districts. It’s not too bad… Next time we start whingeing in the staffroom about how tough we have it, I might pull up this article and show people what a star you are.

Way a go Penny!! You stuck it through with your dedication and it’s paying off. Really like that you have an affection toward teaching and hopefully more teachers out there have the care and work ethic like you do. I think it’s important to know that having the dedication toward a career/interest will pay off eventually and know it will take time. Congrats!

Nicely done! That was a lot of work. It’s interesting that in the district you wanted to work, they don’t look at people with graduate school hour. In Oregon, most teacher education programs are Masters programs, so you get your teaching license at the same time you get your masters degree.

Isn’t it bizarre how every state (and city and school district) is so different?! My heart goes out to people who have taught in multiple states and try to keep up with it all in terms of licensing and even just getting hired!

Congratulations, Penny! As an educator, it’s so great to see a description of someone intentionally climbing the career ladder. Also, while the pricing out thing is a risk in some districts, the right ones will find a way to afford the best teachers. The drive and commitment you displayed makes you a great candidate regardless of cost.

Thank you! I used to be really embarrassed talking about wanting to max out the salary schedule or even just get a raise. But you know what? Now that I’ve done it, I get stopped so frequently from other teachers asking about how and when and why. The most heartbreaking thing I’ve run into now is the amount of teachers who have $25k+ in loans from undergrad and keep adding to them with post-grad work. We definitely need a better system!

I think it took me about 10 years to double my initial salary. The biggest steps were getting over myself and learning to be more collaborative. I had started my actual career with a MS degree. Eventually, focusing on my soft skills in a field that lacks them (tech) led me toward management and lead type roles.

I can’t count the number of business books I read. I went to conferences for years that were less about what I was doing every day and more about things I wanted to do. I started some side businesses and learned a lot.

Thank you! I’m glad I stuck with it. There were definitely times in the middle of each program where I had that, “What am I doing?!” moment. I don’t know that I would ever recommend doing a National Board program while pregnant…but hey, we do what we can when we can! 🙂

That means so much to me, Gerry! Of course, now it’s a bit of a waiting game to make my money back once this last raise kicks in. But all in good time! Better to keep moving through the lanes now than waiting until later, I think.

This was very interesting as I am a high school teacher in New Zealand and the salary works a lot differently. You get paid more every year and reach your max about seven years in. Essentially the only other way you can earn more money is to take on various management responsibilities. This means the best teachers in search of more money end up teaching less, which is a bit of a paradox.

That is a paradox. I also think it probably does work differently in some high schools here. For instance, the department chairs don’t teach full days because they do observations and professional development. That would bum me out. Being with kids is the best part of my day! Who needs more meetings? 😉